“You’re pregnant? Congratulations!”

Suze laughed, and the sound had the same warming effect on me as catching a whiff of my mom’s butter pecan cookies after years of missing out. “Thanks. It happened a little quicker than planned, just like last time, but Erynn’s super pumped about being a big sister. I’m due in late May.”

“You lucked out. No huge belly in the summer heat.”

Suze laughed, but I held my breath. Everything I knew about pregnancy I’d learned from my sister-in-law, but my niece was thirteen now. If Suze wanted to talk morning sickness and swollen feet, I’d have nothing to contribute, and inevitably the conversation would loop around to me. I could try to hide my failed engagement, but I wasn’t confident I could evade her questions without inviting suspicion. With every passing minute I spent in Swanton, the less I felt like an investigator skilled at manipulating suspects and the more I felt like the insecure teenager I used to be with Suze.

She didn’t ask about my personal life. The sense of relief I felt didn’t last long. “Your scar,” she said. “It looks good. Better, I mean. If I didn’t know it was there, I would hardly have noticed.”

I smiled and felt the mutilated, too-tight skin on my jaw hitch. “Time heals all wounds, right?”

“That was messed up. What he did to you.”

Her gaze jumped all over the restaurant as she spoke. Suze was never one to shy away from sensitive subjects, so her discomposure startled me. By the time I got home from the hospital, stitches and bandages in place, I’d decided to shut her out for good. She hadn’t been around to bring me stacks of Seventeen while I recovered at home, or to fill me in on the latest school gossip. But that was my choice, not hers.

I picked at a syrupy wedge of pineapple pizza and knit my brows. Pizza rigor mortis had set in, my cheese was congealed, and anyway, I’d lost my appetite. I set down the slice and wiped my hands.

“That kid always creeped me out,” she said, staring down at her own plate. “It was the way he looked at you. He threatened me once, did I tell you?”

“No,” I said quickly. “How? When?”

“Freshman year. I didn’t even know who he was, but one day he came up to me and said it wasn’t a good idea for you and me to be friends. He told me you had an overprotective brother who had a tendency to get violent.”

“Doug?” My startled laugh sounded like a seal bark, embarrassingly loud. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I know that now, but I was super freaked out for a while. When I met Doug and he was totally sweet, I figured it was just a stupid rumor to keep us apart. Now I think he did it to hurt you.”

All I could do was nod, because I knew she was probably right.

As soon as she took her last bite, I bused our table and reached for my coat. When Suze bent over for her purse, her shirt slid up her back and I caught sight of a colorful tattoo. The rumors were true. At the door, we paused.